Robert De Niro has said that directing a film is a "nightmare", and that his directing days are numbered.

The two-time Oscar winner - who directed 2006's The Good Shepherd - said he is likely to direct only "two or three" more films in his lifetime, including one or two sequels to The Good Shepherd, said The Hollywood Reporter.

The 66-year-old, who picked up an award for achievement in the cinema industry at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, said he envisioned a second film starting in 1961, when The Good Shepherd ends, and spanning until the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. A third instalment, he said, would start after the fall of the Berlin Wall and go forward to the present time.

Robert also cleared up rumours about the eagerly anticipated Sinatra, in which he is expected to play Dean Martin with Al Pacino in the title role, saying: "Yeah, I've heard I was supposed to be in that film."